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Brazilian Immigrant Values

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Do Americans lack significant understanding of Brazilian immigrant values? Which immigrants within the community are willing to speak out about religion, family, and economics and how does this ethnographic data shape the discourse on the Brazilian immigrant community in the United States? Too many Americans have a fragmented knowledge of the Brazilian immigrant experience in the U.S. A limited number of American-edited songs, films, and news headlines and articles skew American awareness of Brazilian culture, and this limited media lens excludes the Brazilian point of view. Brazilian immigrants have said that beyond The Girl From Ipanema, produced by Creed Taylor, an American, and the 20th Century Fox-produced film Rio, many Americans are …show more content…

Reviewing sociological literature shows that churches foster Brazilian immigrant integration, rather than assimilation; in immigrant congregations, immigrants keep language, foodways, and social gatherings while gaining access to social services through church leaders. As Ana Martes shows in her work on 30 Brazilian evangelical churches throughout Massachusetts, pastors, priests, and nuns give “personal assistance” to immigrant parishioners by translating school, court, and medical information from English into Portuguese and by directing immigrants to jobs and housing. Such assistance, done in Brazilian community churches, respects Brazilian ethnic heritage while connecting immigrants to American social, political, and economic institutions.
However, some scholars go further in describing how cohesive immigrant groups like Brazilian evangelicals stick together to cope with integration. As scholar Min Zhou argues, “tight-knit” immigrant cultures like Brazilian evangelical congregations undergo cultural adaptation shaped by “leveling pressures”; even though churches tend to serve parishioners from Brazil only, leaders still must

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She studies their background and circumstances, explaining how “whether living in a labor camp, a boxcar settlement, mining town, or urban barrio, Mexican women nurtured families, worked for wages, built fictive kin networks, and participated in formal and informal community associations” (p. 5). These are the ways, Ruiz found, that helped Mexican American women make them part of the American society. She also talks about the attempts made by groups like Protestants that tried to civilize or Americanize the immigrant women but were unsuccessful due to the religious and community groups as well as labor unions that were formed to give them

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During the Chicano Nationalist Movement, a well-known speaker, Rodolfo ‘Corky’ Gonzales, delivered a speech titled Chicano Nationalism: Victory for La Raza. In this speech, Rodolfo Gonzales tries to unify the Latin American people within the United States by using the idea of a family and to create a new political organization for the Chicano people. This speech was a cumulation of various ideas which stemmed from his own life, the experiences of the Chicano people, and the Chicano Nationalist Movement in general. Each of these factors contributed to the context of the speech and how the ideas within the speech are presented by Rodolfo Gonzales.     Rodolfo ‘Corky’ Gonzales was born to Federico and Indalesia Gonzales, two Mexican immigrants, on June 18, 1928.

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Introduction Informative, contemplative, and different are three words to describe “How Immigrants Become ‘Other’” by Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco and Carola Suárez-Orozco from Rereading America. “How Immigrants Become ‘Other’” talks about unauthorized immigration. More specifically, this source talks about the other side of the issue of unauthorized immigrants; the human face of it all. “How Immigrants Become ‘Other’” depicts the monster from one of Jeffrey Jerome Cohen’s thesis in the article, “Monster Culture (7 Theses).” The monster seen in the source “How Immigrants Become ‘Other’” is the one that Cohen talks about in his fourth thesis, “The Monster Dwells at the Gates of Difference.”

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The immigrants entering the United States throughout its history have always had a profound effect on American culture. However, the identity of immigrant groups has been fundamentally challenged and shaped as they attempt to integrate into U.S. society. The influx of Mexicans into the United States has become a controversial political issue that necessitates a comprehensive understanding of their cultural themes and sense of identity. The film Mi Familia (or My Family) covers the journey and experiences of one Mexican-American (or “Chicano”) family from Mexico as they start a new life in the United States. Throughout the course of the film, the same essential conflicts and themes that epitomize Chicano identity in other works of literature

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The legend of the Virgen de Guadalupe has become a common symbol of hope to many incoming immigrants of Latin American countries. Due to U.S. governmental and economic interventions in Latin American countries, it has caused many people to migrate as refuges and flee unstable environments. These mass migrations have been followed by torturous trails and stories that many times end in death or abuse, however, other times it has allowed refugees to move away and live stable lives in the U.S. However, once in the U.S., these immigrants are faced with discriminatory policy based on false accusations that makes their lives unsafe and unprotected. Therefore, Latinx religious faith becomes a strong component of community for these groups.

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Over the years, immigrants have influenced many aspects of American society and has had a vital role in shaping the United States to what it is today. According to the US Census Bureau, an agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System responsible for producing data about the American people and economy, “non-Hispanic white population in the U.S. declined from 85 percent in 1965 to 62.2 percent in 2014, and the forecast is for the percentage of non-Hispanic whites to fall to 43.6 percent in 2060” (qtd. in Walsh). Despite the rise of immigrants and the profound impact they have had on society, many immigrants face perpetual discrimination; this idea has appeared many times throughout Barbara Kingsolver’s novel The Bean Trees. Taking place during the 1970s, the main character, Taylor, moves from Kentucky to Arizona; along the way, she meets Esperanza and Estevan, illegal immigrants from Guatemala. As she gets to know them better, she notices they are forced to live a monotonous, arduous life which implies that immigrants face prejudice from Americans who claim to be accepting.

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“The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named María” by Judith Ortiz Cofer and “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan depict the endeavors people take on in an attempt to integrate into society. Cofer demonstrates how stereotypes of Latina women have led others to misjudge her and explains the difficulty she had disassociating herself from those stereotypes. Tan demonstrates that the “broken” English her mother speaks has led others to think less of her and disregard her. One’s appearance instantaneously causes others to judge them. For some it is easier to blend in and be accepted by their community, but what is it that keeps some people from assimilating, and what effect does their otherness have on them?

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1044 Words | 5 Pages

Ivan Illich’s speech to the Conference on InterAmerican Student Projects entitled To Hell With Good Intentions is ironic, seeing as he criticizes humanitarian efforts in Mexico and Latin America to the people who volunteer to help these impoverished countries. His opposition to missionaries does not stem from personal views against helping others; rather, from the impact that is actually made upon these nations. Illich’s message that American missionaries are harmful despite their good intentions should be taken to heart by all American aid workers in order to reduce the negative impact of boasting American culture into impoverished Latin American nations. My initial reaction to Illich’s speech was one of disbelief—not at the subject matter itself, but at the audience to whom the subject matter was delivered. Making such a statement at a convention of American missionaries is a bold move, and was surely met with mixed reactions from those in attendance.

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All constantly need to be evangelized and uplifted by the good news of Jesus Christ.” Finally, the presence of new immigrants with their culture and language will cause major changes in pastoral programs of parishes. Thus, accepting and living with cultural pluralism, the Church requires “a profound conversion in spirit and in its

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Language and culture (background, music, food, habits, and behavior) are the main contributing factors for which interviewed students described the Latino group as strongly cohesive and a means to distinguish it from other cultural groups on the RBC campus. Bourdieu would call these cultural capital. arguing that they presuppose a process of embodiment (Szeman 2010:83-84). Culture in this sense is taken for granted and self-evident (Eriksen 2004:69). Bourdieu defines this embodied knowledge that Micaela and Tony described as understanding and easiness as habitus.

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Immigration is deeply rooted in the American culture, yet it is still an issue that has the country divided. Marcelo and Carola Suarez-Orozco, in their essay, “How Immigrants Became ‘Other’” explore the topic of immigration. They argue that Americans view many immigrants as criminals entering America with the hopes of stealing jobs and taking over, but that this viewpoint is not true. They claim that immigrants give up a lot to even have a chance to come into America and will take whatever they can get when they come. The Suarez-Orozco’s support their argument using authority figures to gain credibility as well as exemplification through immigrant stories.

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“The common denominator all Latinos have is that we want some respect. That 's what we 're all fighting for” - Cristina Saralegui. Judith Ortiz Cofer published the article, “The Myth of the Latin Woman,” where she expresses her anger towards stereotypes, inequality, and degradation of Latin Americans. Cofer explains the origins of these perceived views and proceeds to empower Latin American women to champion over them. Cofer establishes her credibility as a Latin American woman with personal anecdotes that emphasize her frustration of the unfair depiction of Latinos in society.

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As a result of their emigration, America was now viewed as “multiethnic and multiracial” and “defined in terms of culture and creed” (Huntington 1). On the contrary, when people traveled across the border from Mexico, their culture was not so widely accepted. Mexican traditions and values were seen as a “serious challenge to America’s traditional identity” (Huntington 2). The “original settlers” of America were incredibly open to people travelling from Europe, but when people came from Latin America, they were

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societies in the world. These sub-cultures include Whites, African Americans, Asians, Irish, Latino, and European among others. Chicano refers to the identity of Mexican-American descendant in the United State. The term is also used to refer to the Mexicans or Latinos in general. Chicanos are descendants of different races such as Central American Indians, Spanish, Africans, Native Americans, and Europeans.

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